Portable radio communication receivers for receiving numeric and alphanumeric messages, e.g., selective call receivers, are well known. Such receivers have long been used for receiving "individual" messages, i.e., messages selectively transmitted to one or more specific, uniquely addressable receivers. A newer application for such receivers that has continued to grow in popularity has been the "mail-drop" application. In such an application a single mail-drop message that was of general interest to a plurality of users of the receivers was updated and retransmitted periodically to a mail-drop address held in common by the plurality of the receivers. Mail-drop messages typically have comprised information such as current stock quotes, sports scores, money exchange rates, etc.
Unfortunately, portable radio communication receivers have been and continue to be moved to locations where radio reception is poor enough to cause errors in a received message, such as injected data bits due to burst noise, and omitted bits due to signal fading. Such errors and omissions can be particularly problematic in mail-drop messages, which may contain information used in making important decisions, e.g., financial decisions.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus for reducing deleterious effects on the information contained in a mail-drop message, wherein the deleterious effects are caused by reception errors when the receiver is carried temporarily to an area of poor radio reception.